Staff Writer

LEWISTON – Eddie Burgess arrived at the Pierce Street Resource Center one morning to find five new mattresses that someone left at the entrance.

His goal: Get rid of them all by the end of the day.

Burgess and one of his volunteer employees, a retired registered nurse who refers to herself as Grandma Flo, pulled out a six-page, handwritten list. They ran down the sheets of paper, looking for people who’d called or visited the center looking for beds. Then they prioritized.

The elderly couple on Lisbon Street who had been sleeping on the floor since the springs in their mattress popped out would get the first call.

The couple was delighted. They told Grandma Flo that two twin beds would be fine.

Within an hour, Burgess, who’s known in the community as Eddie Grey Fox Burgess, and two other volunteers were on their way to the couple’s apartment with two mattresses, two box springs and two headboards tied down in the back of Burgess’ Chevrolet pickup.

They also had two sets of sheets and two comforters, both newly washed and neatly folded.

It was the first of several deliveries that day.

Burgess, 29, opened the Pierce Street Resource Center in October. Since then, he estimates he has “recycled” more than $80,000 worth of furniture, clothes, appliances and other household items.

A former AmeriCorps volunteer, Burgess moved to Lewiston in 2002 to work at the United Valley Chapter of the American Red Cross. He noticed immediately that the area had several agencies committed to helping poor and homeless people.

But he believed something was missing: a place to serve as a connection to those agencies, a place to start.

“The idea is one-stop shopping,” Burgess said. “We don’t care what people’s issues are. We’re just here to help.”

Burgess modeled the downtown center after a similar one in New Hamsphire where he worked as an AmeriCorps volunteer in the 1990s.

Although receiving and delivering secondhand furniture and clothes takes up the majority of his time, Burgess also helps plan funerals, refers people to local doctors and mental health agencies, and finds shelter for people without any.

He rushed a homeless man with frostbite and hypothermia to the emergency room. He found counseling for a pregnant teen who was being pressured to give her baby up for adoption, and he located an open bed at a homeless shelter for a man released from jail.

The two-room storefront at 145 Pierce St. is in the center of the city’s poorest neighborhood – a perfect location, Fox said.

Grandma Flo spends most days at the head of a large table in the center of the room, making calls and revising the master list. She is surrounded by piles of donated chairs and bureaus, stoves and refrigerators, highchairs and cribs.

In the basement, other volunteers are constantly washing, folding and sorting used clothes and linens.

Some people and businesses bring their unwanted items to the center. Others call, and Burgess goes to pick up their stuff. He takes everything as long as it’s not damaged beyond repair.

“Nothing gets tossed unless I absolutely cannot fix it,” he said.

So far, Burgess hasn’t received any grants or other financial help, aside from $500 in individual donations from the community.

He says it takes about $1,000 a month – rent, heat, phone service, electricity and gasoline for his truck – to keep the center open. He makes it happen by working three part-time jobs as a handyman, a certified nursing assistant and an emergency worker for the Red Cross.

“Somehow, we make it work,” he said. “Some people believe there are little angels working for us. I think they may be right.”